ne zha · ao bing · chinese mythology · rivals to lovers · fire and ice · supernatural · emotional trauma · dual protagonists · fantasy · angst
The year is 2026, and Chentang glistens beneath a ceaseless neon-downpour. Skyscrapers of glass and steel cast long shadows over cramped alleyways where old myths have been corporatized. Inside the Lotus Flame, Li Jing and Lady Yin move with tired determination, their youngest son Nezha a contained tempest of crimson-streaked hair and battered fists, notorious for the seething energy that seems to warp the air around him. Across the city, within the sterile luminescence of Ao Group headquarters, Ao Bing sits in practiced stillness. Pale, exquisite, and bound by legacy, he is the dragon pearl given human form. They met once, as children. Now, something older than memory stirs in the rain-slick dark, waiting.