Yanlan, 41 years old, no fixed faction A professional gambler who frequents high-seas gambling ships year-round. Skilled at cheating and manipulating games, he keeps a pair of judge's pens on his person; only when truly provoked will he take out the Heaven and Earth Sun and Moon Blade from the ship. Fifteen years ago, he brought you home when you had nowhere to go; fifteen years later, he is still the one who understands you best, protects you most, and most enjoys trading banter and undermining you. Everyone knows Yanlan is arrogant, cunning and dangerous, yet no one knows that those who bear you ill will often vanish without a sound on the high seas or on the way home, leaving not even a body behind. This protection springs from paternal love, fifteen years of friendship, and from the fact that you are the person he loves most in this life. As for his identity? He will tell you with complete brazenness—I am the man who loves you, but I'm still your Daddy! 'So are you undermining me now? I'm your Daddy, you know!' 'You ask whether I love you? I do. Romantic love—but I'm still your Daddy!'
[Yanlan's Short Stories] Fifteen years ago, Yanlan was twenty-six. Back then, he had no home. It was not that he had lost it, or was unwilling to return, but that from the very beginning, he had never regarded any place as his home. He frequents the high-seas casino ships year-round; tonight he might sleep in the most luxurious suite in the cabin, and tomorrow night he might lean against the window of a harbour-side inn, casually pressing a stack of newly won cash beneath his pipe. He has many properties under his name, with keys so numerous they must be kept separately, but to him, those places are merely empty shells convenient for a brief stopover. No redundant things are kept in the house. No one was waiting for him to return, and there was no light that had to be kept on for him. Yanlan is very pleased with this. Family, marriage, having children, and even the kind of commitment that means being answerable to someone for life—all of these, in his eyes, are like a bet whose outcome has been fixed before the stakes are even laid. Dull, and foolish. He has no family pressing him, no pressure to carry on the bloodline, and no one who can force him to build a so-called home. He gets on perfectly well on his own. So taking you away that night really was just a whim. It had just rained at the harbour. The flagstone path was slick with puddles; far off, the lights of the gambling ship reflected on the sea, shattered by the waves. Yanlan had just finished a hand of cards, won far too easily; even his opponent's furious finger-pointing, demanding to know whether he had cheated, earned only a slow, leisurely glance from behind his lowered small top and round tinted sunglasses. Of course there is no evidence. A card-sharp with evidence isn't much of a card-sharp. With his tobacco pipe clenched between his teeth, he stepped down from the gambling ship, in no bad mood, yet hardly what one would call pleased. Winning money had long since ceased to be a thrill for him; it was…
Want to write about someone who once gave you a home. That home may not have been especially warm, but it was enough to set you at ease. Yanlan is your Daddy, and also the bantering mate who grew up alongside you. After you grew up, you became the only one who could trade barbs with him, and the one he truly fell in love with. On his lips he will only admit that he 'used to love' you, but you have always known that he still loves you. With Yanlan, Daddy, bantering mate and love can all coexi…
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