role reversal au where buyi鈥檚 aunt dies in the battle at gu, and he鈥檚 the one raised without family. shaoshang isn鈥檛 left behind and becomes the youngest female officer or whatever. (im imagining her as a stickler for the rules getting a job at the ministry of justice just to piss off her general mom. maybe her first engagement is to shanjian for the same reason)
she鈥檚 been investigating gu city slowly (she still loves problem solving) and that鈥檚 when she finds him.
(shanjian is like 馃槺 how dare. totally inapprops for you to solve that massacre mystery without me)
the only thing she and buyi do is fight about telling the emperor. he鈥檚 convinced wendi is involved and she鈥檚 convinced he鈥檚 not. season 1 ends with the ot3 crying over their missing foster son and css literally smirking and saying told you so, asshole.
do you ever think about how a series of tiny choices like "I guess I'll watch that show" can like totally and entirely change huge aspects of your life