BANATI: CHILD OF TWO WORLDS

Li Chen was born in the quiet farming settlement of Ning Village, tucked near the fringes of Changzhou City in Xu Province. It was a place where wheat bowed to the wind like silent monks and the mountains rose like guardians of old myths. His parents Yang Su, a strict but kind woman, and Li Minghu, a former soldier whose bones still remembered war raised four children under a roof patched by time. There was Li Hongyan, the eldest brother, serious and built like the stone walls of the capital; Li Ruiyan, their sharp-tongued eldest sister; Li Ming, the second sister, gentle as spring water; and then Li Chen, the second son, quiet and contemplative, always dismantling tools and repurposing scrap metal into strange devices. From childhood, he showed a fascination with gears, energy, and the invisible mechanics of the world. While others chased one another across fields, he sat with gears in his hands, listening to the whisper of metal. By thirteen, he and his brother enlisted in the Daxia military, as was tradition in their family. By fifteen, he had been assigned to the division responsible for technological research, a rare and honourable placement. While Li Hongyan rose quickly to become a general, Li Chen became known for something entirely different: A mind that saw ten steps ahead. A mind Daxia would soon use.