Kai was born in 1904 to Chinese immigrants in the city of San Francisco, the fourth of four children. Two years later, the Lee family lost their meager home in the earthquake of 1906. Their oldest son, Shun, became trapped in the rubble. Initially, there had been some hope that he could be rescued. Unfortunately, fires broke out in the aftershocks, and eight-year-old Shun died – though whether from complications due to the fire or the rubble shifting on him, could not be certain. Devastated and homeless, the family made their way to Los Angeles, following the work the patriarch of the family, Jun, was able to get by working on the railroad.
Jun worked hard on the railroad to provide for the family, but it wasn’t enough. Zhi managed to find work, leaving her eldest daughter Mei in charge of the other two children. Zhi took the only job she was able to find, and though she felt shameful working in a brothel, providing for her children mattered more. Mei worked hard, doing a lot of Kai’s raising and schooling as she was able, though sometimes a neighbor in the migrant camp would watch Suyin and Kai so she could work at the textile factory.
When Suyin grew into her teens, she was noticed by a Hollywood agent, who leaned on her parents and got her legally obligated to him, in order to become a starlet in silent films. Suyin did what she could to get money back to her family, but her agent was incredibly controlling and they didn’t get to see very much of her after they had agreed for her to work as an actress.
Kai was sixteen when Prohibition went into law, and he saw first-hand things that were going wrong due to it. Being a quick thinker, he talked his dad into making homemade liquor, and he would be the one to run it to the speakeasies. He seemed to have a knack for being able to avoid the authorities and was able to not only work alcohol into the brothel his mother worked at but was also successfully able to work his way into delivering liquor to the Hollywood parties his sister threw or attended, and was able to make money that way to help out at home.
By the middle of the decade, he was making good money doing runs, though it wasn’t uncommon for him to get into a fight here and there due to others wanting to get in on the action, or feeling like he was taking over their territories. He was smart though and would calculate a deal to instead work with them, expanding his territory and give them a percentage – most often by lying about how much he was actually making, that way he made more of a profit.
This was how he had caught the attention of Nicolo Amato, a vampire who had migrated to the area to scout out talent for his own purposes. Initially, Nicolo had his eye on Hollywood itself, have been drawn by the glamour and stories. However, he gradually became aware of how things actively worked, who pulled the strings, held the power, and so on. In time, Nicolo learned that some could curry interesting favors by running alcohol.
It was in the process of learning about this, as well as the concept of Prohibition itself (something he found absurd, being a born and bred Sicilian), that he learned about the Chinese kid running a good racket. So he observed. He tried to set traps to catch this kid, to see how he would handle things and ended up being very impressed. He arranged a final sting, orchestrating a situation the kid would have a hard time talking his way out of, while he sat in the back of a Model A Ford.
Even with guns pointed at him and threats being levied, the kid tried to talk his way out of things, offering each of the men present a cut of what he had just collected to let him slide on by, or to take some of the stock he had left. Humans were desperate, and although it was difficult to tell whether or not the boy himself could see it, Niccolo could tell that many of the men present were tempted, stayed only by the worry of what would happen if they went against Niccolo himself. With a slight nod from him, one of them broke, and others quickly followed, getting a cut of what the boy held, as well as what he’d said his remaining stock was.
Niccolo stepped out of the vehicle as distribution was occurring, and the men he’d hired departed after they’d gotten their share, something he’d counted on. He confronted the boy easily, and after some time (and some impressive mental resistance), he learned that the boy often hid at least half of what he pulled on each delivery in case of a holdup, as well as a portion of his stash, in order to drive up the price.
Niccolo offered him a deal and promised him a better life. Initially, Kai had refused, but Niccolo talked him into it and ghouled Kai that night in 1925. Kai worked for him over the years, eventually graduating from running liquor to moving other things, peaking in transporting illegal goods in the eighties by managing to run drugs. In 1988, a full sixty-three years after being ghouled, Niccolo decided that Kai was a good candidate for the embrace. He turned him and then began to teach him the ways of the Lasombra.
For a little over twenty years, Kai strove to prove himself to his sire, as someone who was not a mistake, as some of his sire’s other childer had been. Kai chose to do this by establishing contacts in various cities, forging roads into enemy territory so he could ensure the safe passage of goods, or even other vampires, usually through werewolf or Camarilla territories, or even just customs. Finally, at the turn of the century, Niccolo let Kai loose on the world. Kai was told that he would be on his own, that he no longer had a leash. In reality, Niccolo keeps tabs on his childe to monitor his progress, though offers no help or assistance.
Initially, without prompts or guidance from Niccolo, Kai floundered a little. Within a reasonably short amount of time, however, he was able to pick himself up and strengthen his network and establish a power base, though he has yet to trust anyone enough to do more than form short-term alliances. A pack has eluded him thus far, and after ten years of being on his own, he is starting to feel anxious about having one, worrying that he may be disappointing Niccolo.