It was after the death of China's friend and childhood love, Indus River Valley, that China became slightly paranoid to say the least.
He knew just from watching her that her death had been painful. China knew he did not want to die. And besides, couldn't leave Egypt and Mesopotamia like that. Not to mention that if anything happened to them, who would be left to tell their story? Millennium from now, if there were any other countries that hadn't been born yet, would they know about the great countries who had come before them? Not unless at least one of them was around to tell their stories.
And that was what China decided to do. To make sure he would never die.
"Zhongguo, what is the matter?," one of his bosses said to him. "Is it because your lands and people are so divided that you haven't been feeling well these past few centuries? Even though I haven't been your boss for that long, obviously, things are passed down from emperor to emperor,"
How long had it been since he had cooped himself up in his room after Indus River Valley's death? It couldn't have been that long, could it?
"I don't want to die," China whispered. His boss walked over to him and placed his hand on the young preteen's shoulder.
"We'll protect you with our lives," his boss said. China smiled for the first time in ages. It warmed his heart to know that his people, his boss were willing to protect him like this.
"Thank you. Is there any way that you can keep them from attacking?," China asked him. Although China outlived so many people and was used to them dying, he did not like fighting or wars. He couldn't stand to see villages destroyed or soldiers killed. It was bad enough during years of famine when his people and him were starving, but he couldn't stand his people being slaughtered, whether by each other or foreigners. He had to keep them away from his people... keep them away from him...
"Build a wall to keep them away," China said. It sounded stupid. His people weren't Egypt's people. While she could have her people build great pyramids for her bosses to be buried in, China's people just weren't the architectural type. And the idea of building a wall around him just sounded plain childish.
But to his surprise, his boss bowed. "I'll start building it today. You won't have anything to worry about," he said.
"Thank you," China replied, gratefully.
It took hundreds of years, but eventually his people started to stop fighting among themselves. These new bosses continued building his wall, to protect him, and eventually the first Great Wall of China was finished.
And, as childish as the idea had been, it worked. In fact, it worked so well that about a thousand years later, his bosses continued building walls for China to keep him safe, even though he had long since grown up.
