Cabbage Merchant: His Story
Everyone knows the man... "My Cabbages!" But nobody knows the story. The Cabbage Merchant, named Chu Chen, was the son of revered farmer and cabbage extraordinaire Lu Chen. Chu grew up in the shadow of his father's mighty cabbage empire and aspired for many years to be just like him. One day, Lu was summoned to Ba Sing Se to aid the army with his vast stores of cabbages to feed the starving soldiers.
"You there! Give me your cabbages so our army doesn't starve to death!" Long Feng ordered.
"Uh, how much?" Lu inquired.
"All of them!"
"Uh, that'll be 3,000,000 gold pieces..." Long Feng grew angry at Lu's outrageous price request and struck him down with his earthbending, all in full view of his traumatized son. Chu fled the Earth Kingdom capital to begin life anew in the harsh deserts of the Earth Kingdom wilderness. Scraping together what little possessions he had and slowly build his own cabbage cart. All seemed to be going well, until it actually became time to sell the cabbages.
"My Cabbages!" Though Chu was disheartened by the loss of so many cabbages into the ravines below Omashu, but steeled his resolve with his father's dying words.
"The cabbage trade is a craft that our family has carried for generations. No matter how many carts are destroyed by a posse of careless benders, no matter how many security points you fail, you must carry the burden of the cabbages. I tell you this, for when my days come to an end, you must be Cabbage Merchant." *dies*
Chu toiled and sweated until he could retrieve a second cabbage cart and slipped through the less traveled sewer systems to carry out his father's last will. For many minutes he journeyed through Omashu's vast metropolis, until the cart was destroyed again by a random group of kids. In spite of his heartfelt pleas, The King let the three delinquents free after a series of extremely easy 'tests'.
Growling in frustration, Chu trudged on and joined forces with a clan of pirates to reform his shambled cabbage trade. He finally found a customer, only to have him and his cart blown away by a band of slightly familiar children barreled past, violently destroying his prized cabbages once more. Frustrated with the growing violence, Chu traveled for many days to an isolated cave in the mountains, where he meditated on his life's course.
After many tearful nightmares, he steeled his nerves and sought for Ba Sing Se, the last refuge from the escalating war in the West. In spite of numerous animal attacks that decimated several more of his precious cabbages, Chu was galvanized to action by news of Long Feng's arrest and fall from grace. His sales skyrocketed, he invested in a wider array of businesses, and founded Cabbage Corp. He died peacefully in his sleep several years later.