The King and the Beast

Also known as: The Dog (Wolf)-Taming Diaries

When Shen Zhao transmigrated, the Great Yan Dynasty was already on its last legs. The treasury was so empty even the rats were starving, land consolidation spread like a bloodsucking leech, and the cavalry beyond the frontier sharpened their blades day and night. As for him, the new emperor, he was covered in blood and leaning against a tree, with a pot of boiling water in front of him and a drooling savage beside it.

Fine. The fallen emperor's story starts with a savage treating him as emergency rations.

He didn't run. He pointed at the pot and smiled. "Want to eat me? Can you afford the price?"

The savage couldn't understand him, but instinctively nodded.

Shen Zhao named him "Zhi," meaning a little dog.

He was an expert at training dogs.

--

Wei Ao was a wolf. When it came to flesh-and-blood creatures unlike himself, all he knew was to tear them apart with his sharp fangs and swallow them whole.

One day, he caught a strange scent. It was fragrant, so fragrant, more tempting than any prey he'd ever hunted.

He found the hairless prey, covered in blood, and crouched beside him, watching for a long time. The longer he looked, the hungrier he got. He wanted to chew him up and swallow him whole.

So he set up a pot.

--

The wolf was tamed by a human. He learned to speak, wore a collar and a muzzle, picked up a knife, and became that man's true dog.

But if you want a dog to obey, you have to pay him in meat.

--

Years later, envoys from every nation came to pay homage.

Shen Zhao stood atop the city wall, watching the foreign envoys kneel before the palace steps, merchant ships on the South Sea crowd the waters like clouds blotting out the sun, and the frontier cavalry sheath their blades and retreat. The realm he'd pulled back from the brink with his own hands had finally blossomed into an age of peace and prosperity beneath his feet.

Footsteps approached from behind.

He didn't turn around, just gave a laugh. "Do you remember the first time you saw me? What about now?"

Wei Ao stood beside him in golden, lacquered scale armor. His gaze was dark and obsessive, his voice charged with a possessiveness that sent a chill through the air. "I still want to boil you."

Shen Zhao scoffed. "You untrainable little mutt!"

Below the walls, the people cheered, "Long live the emperor!"

Above, the wolf who had always wanted to eat him didn't bare his sharp fangs. Instead, he reached out and clasped Shen Zhao's hand firmly in his own.

Shen Zhao clasped his broad hand in return and looked out at the officials who had come from all corners of the realm.

His dog had, in the end, become the man who stood at his side and ruled the world with him.

Reader's Guide:

1. Dog (wolf)-taming story. Actual taming.

3. Trying a new character concept and a new genre. Writing freely, building up a backlog before posting.

4. Sorry, the previous blurb belonged to another story. I ran out of inspiration and couldn't even develop the outline, so I've replaced it with this one. I want to try a new genre and break through my creative block.

Theme: Uphold the people's lives and usher in peace for all generations.