Emptiness.
That was what Shen Haoran felt the very moment he opened his eyes to this world.
He understood, from the very moment he was born, that he was fundamentally different from everybody else.
While other infants cried for warmth and other children laughed at simple joys, his mind remained an unchanging, placid ocean.
He felt completely isolated, painfully lonely, as if no one in the world could truly understand the quiet void that stretched across his consciousness.
He saw the vivid colors of human attachment, the fiery spikes of anger, and the soft glows of affection, but none of it ever took root inside him.
Because of that, he became... entirely apathetic.
He donned the mask of the perfect young master, learning the exact angles of a polite smile and the precise tone of voice required to mimic genuine warmth, all while remaining an empty shell on the inside.
