Xiao Ying sat in his chair, barely staving off the rapidly impending mental breakdown that threatened to throw him onto the ground and make him him burst into tears.
Ming Cheng, the lost prince of the kingdom, was catching frogs under the - comparatively nice, mind you - orders of the servant's children.
His darling, hard working protagonist had been reduced to catching frogs for an initiation into a friendship group!
Xiao Ying screamed out loud at what he was looking at, periodically turning his head back to the screen to watch Ming Cheng sit with his muscles clenched, kneeling in the dirt, before lashing out with only one of his hand to catch his second frog.
Turning back away from the screen and looking at the locked door at the side, Xiao Ying scowled silently, his face exaggerating the movements of the expression to make up for the lack of noise.
Xiao Ying closed his eyes and squeezed them shut, still facing the door.
He climbed out his chair and sedately made his way over, standing just in front of the brass handle. He looked down at it without making a movement to touch it or attempt any form of escape.
He just looked down at it and did nothing while his emotions raged inside of him as if he were caught within a ferocious storm.
Xiao Ying stepped away from the door, walking backwards until his back hit the chair.
Jolting in fear at the surprise, Xiao Ying tightened his fists for a second, before relaxing them again.
"I've spent so long here already, but I still didn't know how far..."
The statement made in a vain humour trailed off into nothingness, the silence left behind quickly broken by the sad giggles and then choked sobs.
Xiao Ying fell to the floor, facing the door, and drew his knees up for warmth, to defend against the harsh cold seeping through his skin and bones.
He had been alone for so long.
In that moment, the door suddenly seemed to be painted a too bright colour and Xiao Ying shuffled to turn his body away to look at the wall which the computer screen faced, tucking his body under the chair, keeping to the shadows made by both himself and the furniture.
Xiao Ying revelled in the short glimpses of silence, the rustling of his clothes too loud, his breathing too loud, his heartbeat too loud.
He wanted quiet.
He wanted silence.
He didn't want to speak again.
He didn't want to ever say a word to anyone who he loved, never mind the random strangers on the street who he had never met.
...
...
...
One of the children was mute.
He didn't speak a single word, communicating through one of the other children, A-Qing.
A-Qing spoke for him, taking the place of his mouth.
Xiao Ying knew that he was not the best writer, but he was sure that he had given at least all the characters that featured in his work, in any meaningful way, had at least one spoken line.
But A-Yuan hadn't.
A-Yuan wasn't given any lines at all by him, not a single word to say throughout his entire on page appearance.
A-Yuan was a child who was supposed to speak, a child who was supposed to sing, laugh, and giggle, but Xiao Ying, through such a stupid mistake, had rendered him permanently mute.
Ming Cheng's homelessness and abuse was by design. His rise to power and then complete domination was the karmic justice and reward for all that he had suffered in life. When he became emperor, it was a triumphant moment but...
But A-Yuan would now have to suffer as well, and cast into the role of a minor villain, there was barely any hope for him to ever be properly redeemed.
A-Yuan was never supposed to be mute.
A-Yuan was supposed to speak.
A-Yuan was supposed to introduce the friend group.
A-Yuan was supposed to be the critical one.
A-Qing was supposed to be the cautious one.
A-Tao was supposed to be the hyperactive one.
They were supposed to be one note characters who really were going to convince Xiao Ying to eat a mud cake with a frog inside as part of his initiation.
Xiao Ying was supposed to refuse it and become ostracised from the group.
A-Yuan was supposed to be the younger brother forever cast in his older brother's shadow as a servant who never advanced up the hierarchy, while his older brother studied and became the Imperial Physician of the Royal Court, specialising in herbology.
A-Yuan was supposed to be a boy, who - with all his heart - loved music.
A-Yuan was supposed to be a singer who had learned his craft by hiding under the windows of the music room and listening.
He had never become a musician in his life and never received the opportunity to ever play in front of anyone of note, nor to even be overheard.
Now, with even less at his disposal, A-Yuan would have an even harder job at learning music, and should he ever reveal his talents, he, himself, would be shunned and ostracised from the group.
In the original novel, his lack of recognition was framed as a punishment for bullying Ming Cheng, but now, with Ming Cheng as a potential friend, it was nothing short of a tragedy that A-Yuan would never be heard and would never be able to truly enter the music scene, doomed to a life of judgement and belittlement, even if Ming Cheng smoothed his way.
And it was all Xiao Ying's fault.
Distantly, through the white noise, he could hear a whoop of joy, echoing out from the screen.
His characters had been given life.
His characters had been given life.
His characters had been given life.
A-Tao had given that whoop of happiness, laughing and thumping Ming Cheng on the back, congratulating him for passing the test.
A-Qing hummed in approval at Ming Cheng's efforts.
A-Yuan stayed silent.