A long time ago, three major kingdoms existed in friendship with one another around the lands of Manchuria. There were the Tang Courts of China, where prosperity was a thing of daily life, the Baekje Kingdom, which had altogether too much experience in art (and not enough in military strategy), and the Silla Kingdom, home of the Hwarang, or “Flower Boys”. Although their grouchy court officials had one too many disagreements, the leaders of these great powers were in fact best of friends. They partied all day and partied all night. Sometimes, they’d accidentally get drunk. These young men were all trained in excellence of swordfighting and calligraphy, but young men will be young men. They need some fun too.

One evening in the Tang Courts, Emperor Luhan was staring at the scrolls the officials gave him that morning during their customary meeting.

May the emperor live and reign for ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand ten thousand years...

Couldn’t the ancestors have picked a more logical phrase, Luhan thought. Ten thousand ten thousand years is a bit much, isn’t it? Especially since we’re all bound to die somewhere around the age of 80. But life wouldn’t be worth living if there wasn’t death. What makes a person’s time on Earth special was what they accomplished, but if you could never die, would you be motivated to accomplishments? No. Were his ancestors in their rights minds? Maybe they were high on drugs or something.

The thought of being emperor was a bore for Luhan, and it seemed to never change. Problems here. Starving peasants there. And every single thing Luhan recommended or tried to enforce would get either turned down by the officials or left alone because his greedy advisers refused to give funds. So Luhan did what he thought was best when his ideas didn’t work- he ran away from the imperial palace. Now, this isn’t something a proper emperor would have done, but this is probably something a concerned and loving emperor would do. Every single time he found trouble lurking, and his officials refused to do something about it, he’d run away. And not JUST run away. He’d run away taking as many pieces of gold he could sneak into his self-built carriage. If gold didn’t work, he’d take his pillows, silk blankets, and his sister’s hair pieces. When the maids found him and his things missing in the mornings, they’d sigh and wait for him to come home so they could feed him and dress him again.

On these sneak-outs, Luhan always had half a mind to take his younger sisters with him, but for their safety, oftentimes he didn’t. Instead, he had three trusted friends that aided him- High Chancellor Chen, Chief of the Palace Guard, Zhang Yixing, and his adorable friend, Xiumin, who was the imperial poison tester. He always took those kids with him. Always. Especially because Yixing and his favorite little wushu master rebel sister were in.....a love story. During the night, he would ride out acting like an eunuch driving a carriage on official business in the city and somehow, it always worked. 

But on this particular evening, his intuition told him something was going to happen.

Just a week before, Emperor Luhan had heard about the famine a long ways east of his capital. Of course, this emperor knew that it was going to take a while for the effects to become major enough to warrant the capital's attention, but he was going to get there and help them because he’s Luhan. So he packed his usual stealings from the imperial palace, although, you can’t really steal from yourself, and he left in the darkest of night with his trusted friends, Yixing, Chen, and Xiumin.