Li-Ruilin

For as long as the dynasty has been around it has been patriarchal. The Li-Sun dynasty is a powerful Eastern empire that brandishes a fearsome military army and strict views on societal standards. The emperor is both respected and feared amongst the populace while the empress is renowned for her beauty and compliance to her husband.

It was no secret that the emperor had a concubine. What was secret was that she was pregnant coincidentally around the same time the empress fell pregnant. While the concubine was kept locked away within the palace walls, the empress flaunted her pregnancy. But not everything was rainbow and butterflies. The empress suffered a tragic carriage accident that stole away her unborn child and damaged her reproductive organs beyond what medicine during this age could repair.

While in mourning the empress hid herself away from society while the emperor made up excuses for the people who were awaiting the birth of the heir. In another spat of tragedy, the concubine perished during childbirth. It left Rui without a mother, but the empress was without a child. She longed for a son just as much as the emperor. It was this longing and the loss of her child that twisted her mind into deciding upon the fate of the emperor's daughter.

The daughter would become a son, become a heir to the throne.

The only other person to know Rui's gender was the royal doctor who was threatened with execution should he ever have a loose tongue.

Li-Ruilin wasn't born from the Queen's womb. Rui was born from one of the emperor's concubines. Perhaps it was fortunate that the concubine perished in childbirth which allowed the emperor and empress to falsely claim him an official full-blooded heir to the throne.

Rui was born a female. But the emperor didn't want a daughter who couldn't become heir to the throne. It was the empress who came up with a clever idea. They'd raise Li-Ruilin as a male and keep the prince's true gender under lock and key. And that's what they did. Rui went through emotional and physical abuse at the hands of his parents whom tried to reform him into a proper young man, one fit to rule.

When Rui hit puberty not only was he forced to painfully bind his chest but he also underwent a full hysterectomy to remove his reproductive organs. This sent the teen no older than a high schooler straight into menopause. This also dipped his levels of estrogen and greatly lowered the production of the hormone. It was a tumultuous journey and a long recovery since Rui suffers from a dreadfully slow healing rate.

Rui grew up without any outside disturbances. He was sheltered from the ways of the world but even still he is far from dull when it comes to the problems of the world, of society. Rui excelled in school but has always had a hard time in socialization. His parents turned a blind eye to that, since they do the speaking for him.

Eventually there will come a time when he needs to use his voice.

But for now? He dwells in blissful solitude amongst his plants.