Liu Chanqing stole the Dragon Pearl.
He had never been that kind of person. But when a deadly illness was eating away at him, it was only natural for his temperament to change.
He had heard that a dragon pearl could preserve a person's life, so he searched far and wide for news until he finally learned the whereabouts of the Second Prince of the South Sea Dragon Court.
Liu Chanqing took a desperate risk and approached the notoriously vicious dragon. At last, he became the dragon's friend, but just as he was about to succeed, he hesitated.
Before he could decide what to do, the Dragon Pearl inexplicably turned into a streak of white light and burrowed into his lower abdomen.
The Second Prince could hardly believe that his old friend had stolen the life-saving treasure. He glared at Liu Chanqing with murderous eyes.
Liu Chanqing felt ashamed and miserable beneath that gaze, and could only lower his head.
Then he was imprisoned.
For ten years.
Twenty years.
The Second Prince snarled, "You wanted to live, didn't you? Let's see how long you can keep living!"
So Liu Chanqing spent many years locked inside a small square box. Whenever nothing else was going on, he had to listen to passing shrimp soldiers and crab generals talk about how despicable and shameless this human was.
It shouldn't have been this way.
He had once been a chivalrous hero.
How had things come to this?
After fifty years alone, Liu Chanqing finally understood why he had hesitated, and why he had kept clinging to life.
He had never thought of the Second Prince as a dear friend. He had fallen for him at first sight.
But realizing this only now would make him seem insincere, utterly disgusting, wouldn't it?
He sighed. At last, he understood that he had lived long enough. He ate a Heart-Severing Herb, took the dagger the Second Prince had once given him, cut open his abdomen, and pulled out the blood-soaked pearl.
His vision began to blur. He could feel his life draining away with his blood, yet he felt relieved.
In the end, he had made the right choice. He hadn't gone all the way down the wrong path.
At that same moment, the Second Prince stood rooted to the spot, listening to his father and brothers tease him:
"The Dragon Pearl isn't that fragile. It can't just be stolen and used so easily. It only recognizes its destined master on its own."
*
"Second Prince, how many years are you going to keep that human locked up?"
"When I got hurt fooling around, Father locked me up for five hundred years..."
Ao Qu wrinkled his nose.
"Just fifty years."
Theme: Ah
