Chapter 1

He was born on August 5, 1566 in a small town in China, as the second son of the Lan family. His father, the mayor of the city and the head of the city council, gave him the name Lan Wangji, after his grandfather. His family was one of the wealthy ones in the city. His dad owned a restaurant and rented out fields to farmers around the city. His mother was a healer whose Far Eastern healing arts were widely known. Many came from far away to be treated by her.

Lan Wangji and his 10-year older brother, who would one day inherit everything as the firstborn, were taught by the best teachers in the country. And even though Wangji, as the second-born, would not be entitled to the inheritance, his parents wanted to enable him to live a good life by earning his money as a civil servant one day. Or perhaps as a doctor. At that time, only wealthy families could afford to have their children educated. Most families were poor and needed their children to work in the fields, in the stables or to sell their goods at the markets.

Although Wangji often envied the children who played together in the markets, he always behaved like a well-behaved boy. He never contradicted his parents, always made sure that his clothes fit properly and were clean, and only spoke when asked to do so. His long hair, almost black, he wore open, always combed and always straight. Only rarely was he seen without a book in his hand or under his arm. And even more rarely was he seen smiling.

Many said that his parents treated him especially harshly because he was only the second born and therefore less valuable to the family than his older brother. And in a way they were right. Wangji had learned from the beginning where his place was in the family and how he had to behave if he wanted to continue to enjoy the comforts his parents allowed him.

At that time, when his brother passed the civil service examination and got a good job as a civil servant, his father invited over 100 guests to celebrate the day. When Wangji also passed the civil service exam 10 years later, his father shook hands with him and said, "Well done." There was no celebration for him. This was because it was something that had been expected of his father. But perhaps they also wanted to prevent it from being known that Wangji did better in the civil service exam than his big brother.

Unlike his brother, who was married by then and became a father for the first time, Wangji had to move out of home after the civil service exam and earn his own living. His family only gave him some money so that he could use it to finance his trip. Otherwise, he had no more possessions than what he wore on his body.

Wangji always knew that this day would come sooner or later. Therefore, he had also prepared for it long before. He had always saved all his money, which he gets for birthdays or as pocket money. He owned nothing and had no home anymore, but he was anything but destitute.

After traveling the country for almost a year, Wangji was sure that he did not want to work as a civil servant or a doctor. He wanted to live like the common people. And so he finally settled down in a small pretty village. He bought a small house, to which belonged a small piece of land, and on the plot there were 10 cherry trees.

On his small piece of land he grew vegetables, corn and rice. In the backyard of his house he planted flowers as well as many different herbs. And since it did not go completely without money, he worked in the village as a notary. Mostly, however, he helped the villagers to read and answer their letters. Because most of them could neither read nor write. And Yibo was happy to do it. Even if his payment was only a few chicken eggs.

Within a few years, the small village grew into a large village. New houses and stores were built. Families were founded and even a doctor moved into the village. Wangji, with the help of the villagers, had torn down his old small house that consisted of only one room and built a new beautiful house with 4 rooms. He also bought up the land around the village and resold it as plots for new houses.

At only 21 years old, Wangji had managed to become a wealthy young man to whom many fathers offered their daughters. He was on the village council and voluntarily taught the children in the village for free. Three days a week the children came to him and he taught them reading, writing and calculating. As a thank you from the parents of these children, he was often given meat, fish and vegetables.

When the first missionariescame to the village in 1588 to convince the villagers of Christianity, Wangjiwas 22 years old. He listened to what the missionaries told him about theirGod, and he even read their Bible. But he was sure that neither he nor anyoneelse in the village would ever convert to Christianity.

Since the missionaries did not want to take no for an answer and even started to build a church in the village with the help of soldiers who had come to the village with them, the villagers wanted to fight back and chase the "gang of Christians" out of their village. But they did not let themselves be chased away so easily. The soldiers simply beat those villagers severely who spoke out loudly against the church.

One night some men of the village met and sneaked to the church. They set a fire and the church burned down completely. They thought they had won and that the missionaries and soldiers would leave. But they were wrong. They just built a new church. And then came more soldiers and someone they called the Inquisitor William.

With the appearance of Inquisitor William, the time when the missionaries preached love and forgiveness was over. Instead, the soldiers invaded the homes of the villagers and took away everything they owned. They burned books in the village square that were evil according to the Inquisitor. Which was said for almost all books and scrolls.

They forced the villagers to come to church for morning and evening mass. Those who did not come were captured by the soldiers and punished publicly in the marketplace. They whipped them and often left them tied to a pole in the marketplace for days. Often they forced the families of them to insult them or throw garbage or stones at them.

But all this did not convince the villagers to join Christianity. Instead, it only made them angrier. At secret meetings, usually held at Wangji's house, they discussed what they could do to get rid of the strangers. They made many plans, but discarded them quite quickly when it seemed that the Inquisitor had already found out about their plans.

After a while, they already thought they had a traitor in their ranks. But at some point they caught some spies of the Inquisitor sneaking around Wangji's house and eavesdropping on them. From then on, they exchanged mostly secret messages about when and where they wanted to meet. But even that seemed to work only to a limited extent.

And because the inquisitor had finally had enough of the villagers rebelling against him and Christianity again and again, he decided to take harsh measures. Brutal measures! He had 10 villagers tied up in the marketplace. 4 men, 4 women and 2 children. First he let them whipped, then he let pyres built and set on fire. He forced the families of those to watch, how their family members died agonizingly in the fire.

The enraged villagers had finally had enough. They all gathered the night before the planned village feast and would rather die in a fight against the soldiers than continue to be treated like this by them. Men, women and children armed themselves. Wangji also joined the fight.

Wangji disliked violence and injustice. But what made him join the angry mob of villagers was when he saw with his own eyes how the two children were first whipped and then burned alive. Days later he still had the smell of their burning flesh in his nose. Nightmares kept him awake. And the rage inside him made his heart burn. Never in his life had he felt such rage as he did at that time.

Shortly after 10 PM, the villagers met near the church and armed themselves. They did not even have real weapons. Wangji was the only one who had a real sword. It was a gift from a merchant whom Wangji had helped as a notary a few years ago. But just because he had a sword did not make him a fighter. He was always a well-read man, a man of words and art. Not a man of martial arts.

As the villagers approached the church armed with pitchforks, torches and axes, the soldiers remained unfazed and even laughed. They let the villagers come within a few meters of them and were loudly making fun of them when a few of the villagers yelled that they had had enough of them and that they should get out of their village.

The inquisitor was not unaware of what was happening outside his church. He stepped out of the church and clapped his hands. "Good, good. Now you have finally done it. We tried in good. But you did not want the good and kept plotting against us. You didn't even take our warning seriously. We really wanted to give you one last chance to join us. But now that you have come here armed, I see no reason to spare you. After all, you are threatening us. And of course we have to defend ourselves. For you, this means that at the end of this night, none of you will be alive!" Then he gave the order to his soldiers to kill the villagers!

It was a real slaughter. The few villagers who were able to retreat, like Wangji, hid in a stable for days. But in the end the soldiers found them and dragged them to the village square, where the inquisitor stood jubilantly in front of still-burning crosses on which the burned corpses of children hung. Wangji and the others cried out in anger and grief.

The soldiers took Wangji and the other seven surviving men to the church, where they were tied together on Church benches. One by one, the inquisitor let them brought to him in his torture chamber. The screams of the men who had been tortured in the most brutal way by the inquisitor himself were deafening in the church.

When only Wangji was left, he too was taken to the inquisitor. He had fun inflicting cuts and minor burns on Wangji. He carved a cross into his chest with a knife and laughed. "That looks good on you." He said. But no matter how great the pain the inquisitor inflicted on Wangji, Wangji did not scream once!

"You're tougher than you look. That really impresses me. I think that because you are so brave, you deserve a very special reward. Even though I don't think you'll see it as a reward. After all, this reward means that you will live forever and never forget what I did to you and your friends." Said the inquisitor.

"Do what you want. Say what you want. You don't scare me!" Replied Wangji bravely. He was sure that he, the last villager, would not survive this night. The injuries the inquisitor had inflicted on him were too great. He had long since stopped feeling pain. All he could feel was his warm blood flowing from the numerous wounds and he was getting weaker and weaker.

"I don't scare you? Well, so be it. You will surely change your mind in a moment. But before I give you immortal life right away, you will learn one more secret. I am not a man of God! But I like to pretend to be one. Because in this way I get fresh blood every day and nobody recognizes the truth. But this information will be of no use to you. Because when you wake up again, we are already gone. And no one would believe you anyway." Said the inquisitor with a grin.

Before Wangji could even reply, if he had wanted to, the Inquisitor grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air with only one arm. Wangji couldn't help but scream when he saw the white fangs in the Inquisitor's mouth and his red eyes. "Demon!" Gasped Wangji.

"The word is vampire. And you will become one of us!" Replied the inquisitor. Then he pulled Wangji toward him and slammed his fangs into Wangji's neck. In the brief moment before Wangji lost consciousness, he felt the pain of the fangs in his throat and could hear the Inquisitor sucking his blood.