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The first time it happened, he didn’t expect it to turn into a regular thing. He just wanted to calm this little demon kid so it would stop crying after falling down the stairs!
The second time the kid shyly approached him with a smaller kid (probably a younger sibling?) a few weeks later. There was a big snow storm outside and they were forbidden from going outside which resulted in boredom. Well Shang Qinghua couldn’t blame them! He would also be bored if he was locked in a building for god knows how long, as the Storms in the Northern Kingdom in Demon realm could last weeks , and had nothing else to do.
The third time cemented it as a regular thing and from that moment onward, whenever Shang Qinghua was in the castle, the servants’ children would come to him to listen to a bedtime story.
Together, they visited times of unheard of heavenly beasts, first demons, the beginning of the realms. They spent hours discovering stories long forgotten with legends describing them. Shang Qinghua was very happy to be able to share all of his stories which had never seen the world outside of his half-finished drawts and sketches of Proud Immortal Demon Way. The audience was enthusiastic and adorable at that, asking a lot of questions, visibly interested in what he was saying. It felt different from his first life. It made his heart warm. Shang Qinghua wondered if the story he had written would be better if he hadn’t listened to his readers back then… Well it was too late for that now.
“Uncle! Uncle!” one of the kids said, trying to get his attention.
“Yes Mei-Mei?”
“Can you tell us more about the god who created the world?”She practically jumped in her seat. The rest of the kids shouted excitedly, supporting the idea.
“Hmmm… I don’t know…” Shang Qinghua pretended to think about it. “Don’t you think it’s already time to go to beds though?” He hid his amusement when all the kids started loudly protesting saying it’s still early and that he promised them one more story…
“Ok, ok” he finally gave in, smiling brightly. They were just so adorable! He still hasn’t gained immunity to their cuteness, but who could blame him?! No one would be able to withstand it.
“This uncle will tell you a story of a fallen god, who hadn’t even known he was a deity…” he cleared his throat before continuing.
“Once upon a time, in a different world, lived a child. The boy loved stories because they were the only happy thing in his life. They allowed him to feel as if he was in a different world, far away from his parents arguing and then (after they divorced) silence as the boy was left alone at home sometimes. The stories were his only friends. So he decided to become an author. His parents didn’t like it, so they kicked him out right after he became old enough to live by himself. The boy… no, the young man decided to earn money by writing his own stories.
He hoped to find others, like him, who enjoyed losing themselves in different worlds, where the stories happened.”
“He really loved stories then!” exclaimed one of the kids. Shang Qinghua nodded, smiling sadly.
“But the real world turned out to be a merciless place. So in order to be able to eat and have a roof over his head, the man succumbed to the demands of his readers, changing a great story into a trashy one, just to satisfy his mean audience. But they weren’t pleased with just that. They called him a “bad author” and gave him a lot of negative feedback, no matter what he has written. It hurt the man greatly. He had done what they asked him to? Why weren’t they pleased? He was just a poor author who struggled to live on his own
One day, after he shared the last chapter of the story he wrote, he was hit by lightning and died.” The kids around him gasped loudly at that.
“No!”
“Why?!”
“Not fair!”
“What happened next?!”
Shang Qinghua hushed them, gesturing for them to calm down. After a moment, when the kids quieted down, he continued.
“But then, something unexpected happened”
The kids were listening, their attention fully on Shang Qinghua’s words.
“He got reincarnated into his own story”
The hall erupted in disbelieving shouts.
“No way!”
“Really?!”
“Yes, although he didn't expect that. He would never guess that all the bad things, which happened to his characters, would become real.” Shang Qinghua sighed sadly. “He blamed himself for everything that happened, he let himself sink in guilt, and he would have stayed like that his whole life if not for one event.”
“Few years after he got thrown into his world, he met his favourite character.” Shang Qinghua smiled at the fond memory. ”The man knew he would meet him, that was what was written in the story.”
“But not everything was exactly as he imagined. It was a simple thing, but it made the fallen god wonder. ‘What if he could change the story? What if he could make his characters’ lives easier. What if he prevented their tragic endings?’”
“So he decided. Armed only with his slightly hazy memories, with no god-like powers, he planned. Prepared. Acted. He succeeded in changing the story. He was happy with the outcome, he also got to support and live with his favourite one.” Shang Qinghua laughed at this happily, a broad smile showing on his face.
“Woooooow.” The kids had literal stars in their eyes.
They showered Shang Qinghua in question.
“Uncle and what about…”
“Uncle, who is…”
“Uncle, is the story true?”
And so on, and so on. Shang Qinghua just smiled brighter and answered all of the demon kids’ questions.
He was so occupied he failed to notice a rare, warm look of a particular ice demon…