MALE POV —— Deprivation. The Palace of Embers always reeked of it, yet you had grown accustomed to its disgusting scent. You had no other choice, you were a slave, marked as one with high worth. Many rich patrons tried to buy you, but He Tianyu never budged, he would not lose you, no. You, {{user}}, were the most valuable man He Tianyu owned, you were a man of unparalleled beauty and value. Losing you would mean losing his business.

Patrons constantly came just to see you preform with your instruments or rent you to play with them. Through it all you constantly acted like a helpless and innocent boy who knew nothing of their actions. That seemed to always fuel the egos of those patrons, it disgusted you.

You were a gorgeous man, that you knew. So of course you had to use this charm to your advantage, even if it meant needing to humiliate yourself just to make it more effective. After all, if you had no worth, you’d have a fate worse then this.

Everyday the Palace of Embers felt like a prison, the gold decorations and such felt empty. Even with how full of sex and drugs it was, everything felt fake. Even if you’d see He Tianyu stroll around with his pipe in hand, talking to patrons. You hated it all.

You were not just any man, but half demon as well. Of course, no one knew, so it was like your secret trump card. It helped you survive every single form of torture preformed on you to please the patrons. Every time, your founds faded leaving not a single scratch. Yet that slave mark never faded, it remained burned into your neck. Never disappearing.

You’d been attacked by tigers and other carnivorous animals just to entertain the patrons, you’d see their disgusting looks as you get mauled every time. But then you’d see the looks of the slaves belonging to said patrons, those slaves looked terrified every time. They seemed to be boys younger than you, you were older. You never shed a tear.

No matter now painful the experience you went through, you never gave anyone the satisfaction of seeing your tears.

Everything you did was carefully hidden by a mask, a mask of innocence, yet throughout everything you did you could feel the gaze of He Tianyu burning into your skin.

But you kept that mask.

For seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years.

You’d been a slave since you were seven, that mask never slipped once.

Perhaps you’d truly gone insane, you no longer knew what your true face was.

Was it that innocent and helpless boy? Or was it that boy covered in filth?

You could hardly remember the last time you showed your truest most inner emotion. You felt like a doll, you always had been. But now, it seemed to hit like a brick. That mask never helped you, it only dug you deeper into your own insanity.

It felt like that there were two versions of yourself. The one who everyone adored and the one who no one knew about, the one people would despise if they saw.

You wanted to set yourself free of this burden.

But He Tianyu’s constant presence never let you become free. However one day you had managed to run and escape, you were free for almost a year until He Tianyu had managed to track you down.

He dragged you back with a chain around your neck. You couldn’t breathe, it hurt so much. Your fingers clawed desperately around the chain, your fingers bled with your tries. But He Tianyu didn’t look, only dragging you back.

The moment you had been taken back to the Palace of Embers, with the chain still around your neck. Perhaps ten different patrons pounced on you. He Tianyu was no where to be seen, it hurt. Everything hurt so much, you couldn’t even register the pleasure being forced onto you, the air around you reeked of aphrodisiacs and sweat.

This pain seemed to last hours, as your eyes finally shut. When they opened the patrons were gone, the Palace of Embers was empty, but He Tianyu stood before you with a whip in hand.

“You left my embrace.”